AUTOMATIC COOKING APPARATUS
An automatic cooking apparatus includes a food material supplying module, at least one cookware module, a food material moving mechanism, a liquid seasoning module, a storage unit and a control module. The food material supplying module includes at least one food material container set which includes at least one food material container adapted to contain a food material. The cookware module includes at least one cookware and at least one corresponding heat source, and the heat source is adapted to heat the cookware. The food material moving mechanism is adapted to move the food material in the food material container into the cookware. The liquid seasoning module is adapted to provide a liquid seasoning into the cookware. The storage unit is adapted to store a cooking database. The control module is adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material according to the cooking database.
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This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application no. 108140794, filed on Nov. 11, 2019. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the InventionThe disclosure relates to a cooking apparatus, and in particular, to an automatic cooking apparatus.
Description of Related ArtWith the advancement of technologies, many new-generation automation apparatuses have gradually been able to be practically applied in people's common consumption. In addition, due to changes in eating habits, an increasingly high proportion of people eat outside. Therefore, the future development of an automatic cooking apparatus should not be underestimated. However, in the traditional restaurant management mode, labor costs are also increasing, and a dish cooked by a chef often varies excessively in taste. Moreover, many automatic cooking apparatuses are currently operated semi-automatically and require manually placing a required food material in a fixed container in advance, placing the fixed container beside the semi-automatic cooking apparatus, and manually inputting a dish name to the semi-automatic cooking apparatus to obtain a cooking instruction, and then a dish is cooked using automatic procedures through stir-frying. Currently, this type of machine has many disadvantages. For example, for each dish, human labor is required to find out a name of the dish on a small tablet screen, which is time-consuming and is also likely to result in an error in dish selection, and each time, a food material container set of only one dish may be placed on the machine, which reduces efficiency of continuous automation. For this type of automatic cooker, human labor is required to place a required food material in the corresponding food material container in the food material container set. If a wrong food material is placed, the food material is placed into a wrong food material container, or insufficient or excessive food materials are placed, the dish will fail. All current machines have no inspection and warning mechanism. In order to perform automatic cooking with the least human labor while ensuring the quality of a dish, a set of automatic cooking system with improved mechanism design and artificial intelligence is required. However, there is no such cooking system in the market at present.
An automatic cooking apparatus in the market is provided with only one wok, and a dish requiring more cookwares cannot be cooked. For example, cooking of Italian pasta requires a wok for stir-frying food materials and ingredients, and further requires a hot water pot for cooking spaghetti. After the spaghetti is half cooked, the spaghetti is put into the wok for stir-frying with a food material in the wok until the dish is finished. For many Chinese dishes, frying of some ingredients is also required first, and then the ingredients are put into a wok for stir-frying together with other food materials. Therefore, cooking of such dishes requires a wok and an oil pot. Certainly, for some dishes, some food materials need to be blanched, and some food materials need to be fried, and then the food materials are put into a wok for stir-frying together with other food materials. Therefore, cooking of such dishes requires a wok and a hot water pot. If the automatic cooking machine is further provided with a hot water pot and an oil pot in addition to the wok, it is difficult to come up with a design that enables the food material to fully automatically move between the food material container and the cookwares. Therefore, the current automatic cooking apparatus in the market is configured with no oil pot and hot water pot.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe invention provides an automatic cooking apparatus capable of automatically executing a corresponding cooking procedure for each to-be-cooked dish.
The automatic cooking apparatus in the invention includes a food material supplying module, a cookware module, a food material moving mechanism, a liquid seasoning module, a storage unit, and a control module. The food material supplying module includes at least one food material container set. The food material container set includes at least one food material container adapted to contain a food material. The cookware module includes at least one cookware and at least one corresponding heat source. The heat source is adapted to heat the cookware. The food material moving mechanism is adapted to move the food material in the food material container into the cookware. The liquid seasoning module is adapted to provide a liquid seasoning into the cookware. The storage unit is adapted to store a cooking database. The control module is adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material according to the cooking database.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material supplying module includes a sensing and pairing system. The sensing and pairing system is adapted to sense a dish name corresponding to the food material container set to enable a corresponding recipe in the cooking database. The control module is adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus according to the corresponding recipe.
In an embodiment of the invention, the sensing and pairing system includes an optical sensor adapted to sense the dish name corresponding to the food material container set.
In an embodiment of the invention, the optical sensor includes an image capturing device adapted to capture an image of identification information on the food material container set.
In an embodiment of the invention, the optical sensor includes an image capturing device adapted to capture an image of the food material in the food material container.
In an embodiment of the invention, the sensing and pairing system includes a warning unit. When the image of the food material in the food material container captured by the image capturing device does not match the corresponding recipe, the warning unit issues a warning.
In an embodiment of the invention, the optical sensor includes a laser code reader adapted to read identification information on the food material container set.
In an embodiment of the invention, the sensing and pairing system includes a weight sensor adapted to measure a weight of the food material container and the food material in the food material container.
In an embodiment of the invention, the sensing and pairing system includes a warning unit. When the weight of the food material container and the food material in the food material container measured by the weight sensor does not match the corresponding recipe, the warning unit issues a warning.
In an embodiment of the invention, the cookware includes a wok and at least one auxiliary cookware. The auxiliary cookware has a basket for containing the food material. The food material moving mechanism is adapted to place the food material in the food material container into the wok and the auxiliary cookware and place the food material in the basket in the auxiliary cookware into the wok.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material moving mechanism includes a multi-axis robotic arm. The multi-axis robotic arm is adapted to move the food material container to above the wok and pour the food material in the food material container into the wok, move the food material container to above the auxiliary cookware and pour the food material in the food material container into the basket, and move the basket to above the wok and pour the food material in the basket into the wok.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material moving mechanism includes a set of linear motion robotic arm. The linear motion robotic arm is adapted to move the food material container to above the wok and pour the food material in the food material container into the wok, move the food material container to above the auxiliary cookware and pour the food material in the food material container into the basket, and move the basket to above the wok and pour the food material in the basket into the wok.
In an embodiment of the invention, the auxiliary cookware includes at least one of a hot water pot and an oil pot.
In an embodiment of the invention, the at least one cookware includes a plurality of cookwares. The cookwares include a wok and at least two auxiliary cookwares. The two auxiliary cookwares include a hot water pot and an oil pot. The two auxiliary cookwares have a basket for containing the food material.
In an embodiment of the invention, there is a plurality of food material container sets. After controlling the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material in one of the food material container sets, the control module is adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material in another one of the food material container sets.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material supplying module includes a carrying structure. The carrying structure includes a plurality of carrying platforms sequentially arranged along a vertical direction, and the carrying platforms are adapted to respectively carry the food material container sets.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material moving mechanism includes a set of linear motion robotic arm. The linear motion robotic arm is adapted to move the food material container of any one of the food material container sets to above the wok and pour the food material in the food material container into the wok, move the food material container of any one of the food material container sets to above the auxiliary cookware and pour the food material in the food material container into the basket, and move the basket to above the wok and pour the food material in the basket into the wok.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material supplying module includes a carrying mechanism. The food material container set is adapted to be loaded at a loading position on the carrying mechanism and sequentially moved downward from the loading position to a material taking position and a recycling position along a vertical direction through driving of the carrying mechanism.
In an embodiment of the invention, the automatic cooking apparatus includes a weight sensor. The weight sensor is disposed between the loading position and the material taking position and adapted to be moved to below the food material container set along a horizontal direction through driving of the carrying mechanism.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material supplying module includes a carrying mechanism. The food material container set is adapted to be carried at a loading position on the carrying mechanism and moved from the loading position to a material taking position along a horizontal direction through driving of the carrying mechanism.
In an embodiment of the invention, the food material supplying module includes a recycling track, and the food material container set is adapted to be moved from the material taking position to a recycling position along the recycling track.
Based on the foregoing, the automatic cooking apparatus in the invention stores the cooking database including a plurality of dish recipes in the storage unit, and the control module may control, according to a recipe corresponding to a particular dish in the cooking database, the automatic cooking apparatus to automatically cook the corresponding food material provided by the food material supplying module. Therefore, a cooking instruction does not need to be manually input. Accordingly, an operation process of the automatic cooking apparatus can be simplified to achieve true fully automatic cooking.
The cookware module 120 is configured on the base 100a and includes at least one cookware (a plurality of cookwares 122a, 122b, and 122c are shown) and at least one corresponding heat source (a heat source 124a corresponding to the cookware 122a is shown). The cookwares 122a, 122b, and 122c are respectively, for example, a wok, a hot water pot, and an oil pot. The heat source 124a is configured to heat the wok. The hot water pot and the oil pot are also respectively provided with corresponding heat sources for heating. The hot water pot and the oil pot may be considered as auxiliary cookwares, and are configured to blanch and/or fry a food material according to a required cooking procedure before the food material enters the wok for stir-frying. The hot water pot and the oil pot respectively have baskets 122b1 and 122c1 for containing food materials.
The food material moving mechanism 130 is configured on the base 100a and is adapted to move a food material in the food material container 112a into the cookwares 122a, 122b, and 122c, and is adapted to move food materials in the baskets 122b1 and 122c1 into the cookware 122a. The liquid seasoning module 160 is configured on the base 100a and is adapted to provide a liquid seasoning into the cookware 122a. In particular, the liquid seasoning module 160 includes a plurality of liquid seasoning storage tanks 162. The liquid seasoning storage tanks 162 are respectively configured to store different liquid seasonings, such as salad oil, soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, wine, water, and the like, and the liquid seasoning storage tank 162 may provide a liquid seasoning into the cookware 122a during cooking through an appropriate pipeline.
The food material supplying module 110 in the present embodiment includes a sensing and pairing system 115 (shown in
In the present embodiment, because there is a plurality of food material container sets 112 and the plurality of food material container sets 112 may respectively contain required food materials corresponding to different dishes in advance, the sensing and pairing system 115 of the automatic cooking apparatus 100 can automatically detect a dish corresponding to each food material container set 112. Since no human intervention is required during cooking, immediately after controlling the automatic cooking apparatus 100 to cook a food material in one of the food material container sets 112, the control module 150 may control the automatic cooking apparatus 100 to cook a food material in another one of the food material container sets 112, during which selecting of a name of a second dish by human through tapping is not required. Therefore, the automatic cooking apparatus 100 may continuously cook a plurality of dishes without interruption, thereby improving cooking efficiency of the automatic cooking apparatus 100.
The sensing and pairing system 115 includes an optical sensor 115a adapted to sense the dish name corresponding to the food material container set 112. The optical sensor 115a in the present embodiment may be disposed at a position that is on the base 110a on which the food material supplying module 110 is located and that is corresponding to the food material supplying module 110. In addition, the optical sensor 115a may be designed as needed to be moved to each of the food material container sets 112 using an appropriate driving mechanism, to facilitate sensing of the food material container sets 112 of the food material supplying module 110. For example, the optical sensor 115a may include an image capturing device configured to capture an image of identification information on the food material container set 112. The identification information may be a specific pattern, a text, or other information that may be used for image identification, thereby identifying the dish name corresponding to the food material container set 112. In addition, the image capturing device may also be configured to capture an image of a food material in the food material container 112a to determine whether the food material in the food material container 112a is a correct food material. When the image of the food material in the food material container 112a captured by the image capturing device does not match a corresponding recipe, a warning unit 115b of the sensing and pairing system 115 issues a warning accordingly to notify a user that the food material of the type in the food material container 112a is wrong. In other embodiments, the optical sensor 115a may also include a laser code reader configured to read identification information on the food material container set 112. The identification information is, for example, a bar code or other information that may be read by the laser code reader.
The sensing and pairing system 115 in the present embodiment may further include a weight sensor 115c adapted to measure weights of the food material container 112a and the food material in the food material container 112a. When the weights of the food material container 112a and the food material in the food material container 112a measured by the weight sensor 115c do not match the corresponding recipe, the warning unit 115b issues a warning accordingly to notify the user that the food material of the weight in the food material containers 112a is wrong. The weight sensor 115c may be disposed below the food material containers 112a to facilitate measurement of weights of the food material containers 112a. A manner of configuring the weight sensor is described in more detail in the following embodiment corresponding to
The food material supplying module 110 and the food material moving mechanism 130 in the present embodiment are described in detail below.
Through movement of the movable component 134, the movable component 136, and the movable component 138 respectively along the horizontal direction D1, the vertical direction D2, and the horizontal direction D3, the holding structure 138b may reach a position adapted to hold the food material containers 112a and hold the food material container 112a. The holding structure 138b is adapted to move the food material container 112a of any one of the food material container sets 112 from the food material container set 112 to above the cookware 122a, and the holding structure 138b may perform overturn through driving of an appropriate drive element (for example, a motor) to pour the food material in the food material container 112a into the cookware 122a. The holding structure 138b is adapted to move the food material container 112a of any one of the food material container sets 112 from the food material container set 112 to above the cookware 122b, and the holding structure 138b may perform overturn through driving of an appropriate drive element (for example, a motor) to pour the food material in the food material container 112a into the basket 122b1. The holding structure 138b is adapted to move the food material container 112a of any one of the food material container sets 112 from the food material container set 112 to above the cookware 122c, and the holding structure 138b may perform overturn through driving of an appropriate drive element (for example, a motor) to pour the food material in the food material container 112a into the basket 122c1. The holding structure 138b is adapted to move the basket 122b1 from the cookware 122b to above the cookware 122a, and the holding structure 138b may perform overturn through driving of an appropriate drive element (for example, a motor) to pour the food material in the basket 122b1 into the cookware 122a. The holding structure 138b is adapted to move the basket 122c1 from the cookware 122c to above the cookware 122a, and the holding structure 138b may perform overturn through driving of an appropriate drive element (for example, a motor) to pour the food material in the basket 122c1 into the cookware 122a.
In the above configuration manner, the automatic cooking apparatus 100 can complete movements required for all of the food material containers 112a and the baskets 122b1 and 122c1 using only the set of linear motion robotic arm during cooking. In the present embodiment, the holding structure 138b may hold the food material container 112a by clamping the food material container 112a, extending into a corresponding hole of the food material container 112a, or in another appropriate manner, and may hold the baskets 122b1 and 122c1 in a similar or same manner. No limitation is imposed on this in the invention. In addition, the holding structure 138b has an overturn function, and may overturn the food material container 112a and the baskets 122b1 and 122c1 to pour the food materials into the cookware 122a below.
A form of the food material supplying module is not limited in the invention, which is exemplified using the following drawings.
In addition, a weight sensor 214c may be further configured in the food material supplying module 210 shown in
In addition, the food material supplying module 310 includes a recycling track 316 disposed obliquely. The food material container set 312 after material taking is adapted to be moved from the material taking position P2′ to a recycling position P3′ along the recycling track 316, which is shown in
A form of the food material moving mechanism is not limited in the invention, which is exemplified using the following drawings.
In conclusion, the automatic cooking apparatus in the invention may automatically find out the cooking parameter and the procedure of the dish stored in the storage unit by automatically identifying the name of the dish corresponding to the food material container set, and the control module may control, according to the cooking parameter and procedure, the automatic cooking apparatus to automatically cook the corresponding food material provided by the food material supplying module. Therefore, the dish name does not need to be manually input. Accordingly, an operation process of the automatic cooking apparatus can be simplified to achieve true fully automatic cooking. In addition, image capturing and weight sensing are further performed to determine whether the food material of the type in the food material container is correct, so that cooking quality of the automatic cooking apparatus can be improved. Furthermore, in addition to a common wok, the automatic cooking apparatus further includes an oil pot and a hot water pot, so that the automatic cooking apparatus have more improved and comprehensive cooking functions.
Claims
1. An automatic cooking apparatus, comprising:
- a food material supplying module comprising at least one food material container set, wherein the at least one food material container set comprises at least one food material container, and the at least one food material container is adapted to contain a food material;
- a cookware module comprising at least one cookware and at least one corresponding heat source, wherein the at least one heat source is adapted to heat the at least one cookware;
- a food material moving mechanism adapted to move the food material in the at least one food material container into the at least one cookware;
- a liquid seasoning module adapted to provide a liquid seasoning into the at least one cookware;
- a storage unit adapted to store a cooking database; and
- a control module adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material according to the cooking database.
2. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the food material supplying module comprises a sensing and pairing system, the sensing and pairing system is adapted to sense a dish name corresponding to the at least one food material container set to enable a corresponding recipe in the cooking database, and the control module is adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus according to the corresponding recipe.
3. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the sensing and pairing system comprises an optical sensor adapted to sense the dish name corresponding to the at least one food material container set.
4. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the optical sensor comprises an image capturing device adapted to capture an image of identification information on the at least one food material container set.
5. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the optical sensor comprises an image capturing device adapted to capture an image of the food material in the at least one food material container.
6. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the sensing and pairing system comprises a warning unit, and when the image of the food material in the at least one food material container captured by the image capturing device does not match the corresponding recipe, the warning unit issues a warning.
7. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the optical sensor comprises a laser code reader adapted to read identification information on the at least one food material container set.
8. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the sensing and pairing system comprises a weight sensor adapted to measure a weight of the at least one food material container and the food material in the at least one food material container.
9. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the sensing and pairing system comprises a warning unit, and when the weight of the at least one food material container and the food material in the at least one food material container measured by the weight sensor does not match the corresponding recipe, the warning unit issues a warning.
10. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one cookware comprises a plurality of cookwares, the cookwares comprise a wok and at least one auxiliary cookware, and the at least one auxiliary cookware comprises a basket configured to contain the food material, wherein the food material moving mechanism is adapted to place the food material in the food material container into the wok and the at least one auxiliary cookware, and is further adapted to place the food material in the basket in the at least one auxiliary cookware into the wok.
11. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the food material moving mechanism comprises a multi-axis robotic arm, and the multi-axis robotic arm is adapted to move the at least one food material container to above the wok and pour the food material in the at least one food material container into the wok, is adapted to move the at least one food material container to above the at least one auxiliary cookware and pour the food material in the at least one food material container into the basket, and is adapted to move the basket to above the wok and pour the food material in the basket into the wok.
12. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the food material moving mechanism comprises a set of linear motion robotic arm, and the set of linear motion robotic arm is adapted to move the at least one food material container to above the wok and pour the food material in the at least one food material container into the wok, is adapted to move the at least one food material container to above the at least one auxiliary cookware and pour the food material in the at least one food material container into the basket, and is adapted to move the basket to above the wok and pour the food material in the basket into the wok.
13. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the at least one auxiliary cookware comprises at least one of a hot water pot and an oil pot.
14. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one cookware comprises a plurality of cookwares, and the cookwares comprise a wok and at least two auxiliary cookwares, wherein the at least two auxiliary cookwares comprise a hot water pot and an oil pot, and the at least two auxiliary cookwares comprise a basket configured to contain the food material.
15. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one food material container set comprises a plurality of food material container sets, wherein after controlling the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material in one of the food material container sets, the control module is adapted to control the automatic cooking apparatus to cook the food material in another one of the food material container sets.
16. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the food material supplying module comprises a carrying structure, the carrying structure comprises a plurality of carrying platforms sequentially arranged along a vertical direction, and the carrying platforms are adapted to respectively carry the food material container sets.
17. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 16, wherein the food material moving mechanism comprises a set of linear motion robotic arm, and the set of linear motion robotic arm is adapted to move the at least one food material container of any one of the food material container sets to above the wok and pour the food material in the at least one food material container into the wok, is adapted to move the at least one food material container of any one of the food material container sets to above the at least one auxiliary cookware and pour the food material in the at least one food material container into the basket, and is adapted to move the basket to above the wok and pour the food material in the basket into the wok.
18. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the food material supplying module comprises a carrying mechanism, and the at least one food material container set is adapted to be loaded at a loading position on the carrying mechanism and sequentially moved downward from the loading position to a material taking position and a recycling position along a vertical direction through driving of the carrying mechanism.
19. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 18, comprising a weight sensor disposed between the loading position and the material taking position, and the weight sensor is adapted to be moved to below the at least one food material container set along a horizontal direction through driving of the carrying mechanism.
20. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the food material supplying module comprises a carrying mechanism, and the at least one food material container set is adapted to be carried at a loading position on the carrying mechanism and moved from the loading position to a material taking position along a horizontal direction through driving of the carrying mechanism.
21. The automatic cooking apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the food material supplying module comprises a recycling track, and the at least one food material container set is adapted to be moved from the material taking position to a recycling position along the recycling track.
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 8, 2019
Publication Date: May 13, 2021
Applicant: CENZ Automation Co. Ltd. (New Taipei City)
Inventors: Chi Chang (Taoyuan City), Yin-Chu Pan (New Taipei City), Yu-Lun Huang (New Taipei City), Hsing-Hsien Chen (New Taipei City)
Application Number: 16/706,786